Opuntia oricola
Chaparral prickly pear
Family Cactaceae
IUCN: Least concern Wikipedia (opens in a new tab)
About
Chaparral prickly pear is a large, tree-like cactus of coastal southern California and Baja California.
Care at a glance
- Pet safety
- Listed as non-toxic to dogs, cats and horses, but spines and glochids cause injury. General guidance for the genus
- People
- Barbed glochids lodge in skin and irritate; wear gloves when handling. General guidance for the genus
- Light
- Full sun (6+ hours of direct sun); high light indoors. General guidance for the genus
- Water
- Very drought tolerant; avoid soggy soil, which causes root rot. General guidance for the genus
- Soil
- Well-drained sandy or loamy soil; cactus mix in pots. General guidance for the genus
- Propagation
- A single detached pad roots readily to form a new plant. General guidance for the genus
- Mature size
- Often over 2 m tall.
“General guidance for the genus” marks advice sourced for the genus as a whole rather than this species.
Field notes
Morphology
Often over 2 m tall, with rounded flat segments up to 25 cm long and clusters of curved yellowish spines about 2 cm long. Flowers are yellow, sometimes tinged orange. The round fruit is purplish red outside, whitish and juicy inside, up to 6 cm long.
Distribution & habitat
Southern California and Baja California, Mexico, in coastal sage scrub and chaparral.
Conservation
Once common along the California coast and nearby inland, but development has reduced its populations.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States, Mexico
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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